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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25159042">Being the Kept Man</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfiefics/pseuds/wolfiefics'>wolfiefics</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rising From the Pit [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I think this is the last of the 'series', M/M, More Sex, Ra's is a collector of many fine things that I actually had to do some research on, Roman POV, but i could be wrong, my historian heart weeps, oh darn, pretty much sex, riches that are tacky but not as tacky as Roman's club, that's sarcasm by the way</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:29:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,381</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25159042</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfiefics/pseuds/wolfiefics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After his rebirth in the Lazarus Pit, Roman is taken around Ra's' home. He learns what true wealth and luxury is...and finds out his fate. It should piss him off, but really, it has its perks. Oh and sex. Can't forget that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ra's al Ghul/Roman Sionis</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rising From the Pit [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822576</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Being the Kept Man</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinasnyder/gifts">robinasnyder</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLynn/gifts">LittleLynn</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orientalld/gifts">Orientalld</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>It's all Lorelei and LittleLynn's fault. They are dirty, dirty enablers. And I'm the weak Ra's/Roman crack dealer. No pun regarding cracks intended. Get it? (I know, that was bad). Not betaed, but does mindless smut and bragging about how rich you are *need* betaing?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Things were hazy and coated with a sickly, vomit-colored green to his blurry vision. Ra’s had his arms wrapped tightly around Roman and the younger man felt better for it. Grounded.</p>
<p>“Welcome back, baby,” his lover said with just a hint of smugness.</p>
<p>Roman didn’t know where he’d gone to garner such a comment, but reached up almost instinctively to trace the bristly beard on Ra’s’ face. “I knew you wouldn’t let me go until you were done with me,” he rasped before sinking into a light daze.</p>
<p>Moving, thinking, breathing took too much effort but Roman sensed that Ra’s had gone to a great deal of trouble for him so he should probably make the effort. The smell bombarding his nostrils was sulphuric, nearly acidly so. Whatever Ra’s was dragging his body through was glutenous, gloopy, yet shed off him as parts of his body left it easier than even water.</p>
<p>A woman’s voice, strong and irritatingly powerful, spoke. Roman didn’t register the words, but felt small hands help take him from whatever liquid Ra’s had them in and Roman fought. Women didn’t touch him unless he gave the lowly creatures permission. Even as weak as he was, Roman thrashed and cursed her until once more Ra’s’ arms settled around him, soothing him, calming him.</p>
<p>There was speech between the woman and Ra’s but Roman ignored it. Memories were sparking behind his closed eyes. That bitch, Harley Quinn. That stupid cop, Rene Montoya. His traitorous Black Canary. Whoever that lunatic assassin…Huntress was. And that irritating little pickpocket sneak thief, Cassandra Cain. They dared to defy him. <em>Him!</em> Black Mask, Roman Sionis! A bunch of piddly-ass women.</p>
<p>And a grenade.</p>
<p>He stilled, remembering those last few seconds like watching a slow-motion film. Fury steam-rolled through him. He was going to find that Cain whore and make her wish she’d never been born.</p>
<p>Roman opened his eyes and tried to snarl something but instead helpless, maniacal laughter burst forth. Solid, coalesced thoughts scattered like leaves in a tornado.  How long he laughed, how long he had no conscious, sane thought, Roman didn’t know.</p>
<p>He came back to himself with Ra’s murmuring soothingly to him. Roman began to relax and his wits returned, such as they ever were.</p>
<p>He was hard. He stared up at Ra’s, those dark eyes assessing him almost clinically. <em>Not</em> what Roman wanted.</p>
<p>“Did you bring me back from the dead as an experiment,” he managed to say with a hint of sass, “or because you wanted to fuck me?”</p>
<p>Those dark eyes turned pitch black as Ra’s’ pupils expanded and a feral grin spread across the older man’s face as he clamped a hand on Roman’s jaw to tilt it up. “From now on,” Ra’s al Ghul said in a commanding, brook-no-denial tone, “call me master.”</p>
<p>Roman gave half a second’s thought to arguing but dismissed it just as quickly. He was in his favorite position, after all. At Ra’s’ mercy.</p>
<p>“Then by all means, Master,” he replied, “I need you, in me, and I need to be screaming your name.” He gave what he hoped was a sultry look. “After all, you deserve a reward for bringing me back to life.”</p>
<p>He was flat on his back, legs slung over Ra’s’ shoulders and the older man sinking into his ass in a matter of seconds. Whatever had brought him back to life still had Roman lubed and relaxed, as there was only a slight, exquisite burn. He grunted as Ra’s bottomed out in a vicious plunge, hands clamped on Roman’s hips.</p>
<p>“You do not come until I say you can,” Ra’s said, again with the commanding voice.</p>
<p>“Yes, Master,” Roman gasped. He tried to arch into Ra’s groin but hands held him firm.</p>
<p>Roman knew this game. It excited him. He was at Ra’s mercy, a slave to the older man’s whims. He gave an enthusiastic gasping whimper that seemed to ricochet around wherever they were at. Ra’s paid him no mind, thrusting hard, fast, and with near-brutality, grunts of his own bursting from him animalistically.</p>
<p>The tension built and Roman scrabbled his hands about for purchase, feeling to his momentary surprise hard rock beneath him.</p>
<p>“Please…Gods…yes!” he screamed. “Harder! I want it to hurt, damn you!”</p>
<p>Ra’s stopped, halfway out of Roman’s hole and Roman gave a snarl of displeasure. His lover leaned over, crushing Roman’s legs back against his chest, and said in a pleasant, amiable voice, “I will fuck you however I want to.”</p>
<p>And then slammed home once more. It shoved Roman, scraping his bare back across the rocky floor. The pain was a mere annoyance compared to how his ass was starting to feel. Ra’s rammed home over and over, shoving Roman further along the uneven stone floor. The pace was relentless and the pressure built until it was a near white-hot pain in Roman’s cock.</p>
<p>Finally, FINALLY, Ra’s wrapped his hand around Roman’s prick and purred, “You may come now.”</p>
<p>Roman did as ordered reflexively, semen roping in a long stream up his chest and nearly to his neck and chin. He screamed his release, mindless with it. There was only Ra’s inside him and his orgasm overtaking his mind. A few more harsh, deep strokes and Ra’s came as well, grunting with each erratic thrust and a final bellow of completion.</p>
<p>When Roman came to lucidity, Ra’s was braced over him, arms straight around his head and his legs still resting on Ra’s shoulders. Triumph, sexual satiation, and something that Roman couldn’t identify, gleamed in the depths of Ra’s eyes and on his face.</p>
<p>“So,” Roman managed to say cheekily, “was it good for you?”</p>
<p>Ra’s rose up and gave a lazy stroke where his rehardening cock still rested inside Roman’s ass. “It will do,” Ra’s said, pulling out with a regretful expression. “For now,” he added, which gave Roman a very big thrill.</p>
<p>Roman allowed Ra’s to disentangle them and stretched his abused muscles as he looked around. “Are we in a cave?” he asked in bemusement.</p>
<p>“One of the Lazarus Pits,” Ra’s told him with a nod.</p>
<p>“Those rejuvenation things you told me about?” Roman clarified, sitting up with a wince and peering at the pool of disgusting looking goo. “You dumped me in that?”</p>
<p>Ra’s gave him a glance. “What was left of you,” he said casually.</p>
<p>Oh yes. The grenade. “I’m going to find those bitches,” Roman said in a calm manner, “and make what happened to Joan of Arc seem like playtime at a nursery.”</p>
<p>Ra’s gave a chuckle. “Only if I let you.”</p>
<p>Roman gave Ra’s a sharp look. “I beg your pardon?”</p>
<p>The expression Ra’s turned on him would have cowed lesser, smarter men. “You are mine now. If I want you to leave, you leave in a wooden box that perfectly measures your body.” Ra’s straightened his trousers and closed his fly. “Your pretenses of grandeur while in Gotham City were amusing, if tacky.” Ra’s held out a hand to help Roman to his feet. “Let me show you what real wealth and power can bring.”</p>
<p>Roman accepted the offer up and his legs were wobbly at first. He could feel Ra’s semen leaking from his rump as well.</p>
<p>“Ah, Ubu, you are ever efficient.”</p>
<p>Roman spun around when a voice replied, “I endeavor to be so, Master. I have brought Mr. Sionis covering and slip on shoes that, seeing him now, might be too big for him.”</p>
<p>Roman bristled. Was this bald, genie looking dipshit saying he was small?</p>
<p>Ra’s merely gave his servant a gracious smile. “It will still be better than making the long trek barefoot up the tunnel to the main house.”</p>
<p>“Where are we?” Roman demanded.</p>
<p>Ubu, a man of distinct Middle Eastern origins but with aspirations of being the Mr. Clean man in the looks department, merely settled limpid brown eyes on Roman, waiting for his master’s permission to speak. Ra’s gave a single curt nod, taking the clothing from his servant.</p>
<p>“Jordan.”</p>
<p>Roman gaped. “As in the <em>country</em> of Jordan?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” Ra’s didn’t seem to be forthcoming on further details.</p>
<p>Having no further idea how to respond, Roman allowed Ra’s to drape a boring burgundy short robe around him and Ubu stooped to slip the brown leather slippers onto Roman’s feet like a good little valet. The “I Dream of Jeannie” wannabe was correct. The shoes were too big.</p>
<p>“If I’m going to be a kept man,” Roman turned to Ra’s with mock-playfulness, “I have demands.”</p>
<p>Ra’s hiked an elegant silver-black eyebrow. “Oh?” He turned to Ubu. “He’s a damned good lay and an amusing conversationalist, but you will learn he is…” Here Ra’s paused delicately. “Eccentric in everything else.”</p>
<p>Ubu didn’t blink an eye at that. “I will see to his needs as you see fit, Master,” the man replied.</p>
<p>Roman rolled his eyes. Doormat.</p>
<p>Quick as a cobra, Ra’s had a hand gripping Roman’s chin once more, jerking his head around so that they were facing each other once more. “You will respect all in my home as if they are me, do you understand?” The tone was harsh, commanding, and spoke of violence if not obeyed.</p>
<p>Roman tried to jerk his face from the grip, but it became bruising. For emphasis, Ra’s gave Roman’s head a firm shake, as if to rattle things loose in his head.</p>
<p>“I asked if you understand?”</p>
<p>“I’m not your damned flunkey,” Roman snapped, hand snapping up to circle Ra’s wrist.</p>
<p>The grip tightened even more. “Flunkey?” Ra’s gave a low laugh that sent chills and thrills down Roman’s spine. “Never that, my dear, but I played your cute little games in Gotham because it was your turf.” Ra’s tipped his head to one side as he amended, “Such as it was.”</p>
<p>Roman gave a snarl. “I was damned near King of Gotham!”</p>
<p>Ra’s gave a loud, booming laugh that sparked Roman’s anger further. “You were a minor irritant to even the slut who followed the Joker,” Ra’s told him bluntly. The touch on his chin gentled, became a caress as if soothing a perturbed animal. “Here you will be my favorite, spoiled, pampered, given all you want and desire if it mine to give.” Ra’s voice turned into a purr. “As long as you please me, and I you, our very favorable relationship need not come to an end because of your petulance.”</p>
<p>There was a warning there and Roman heard, and heeded, it. “Fine,” he snapped. Something occurred to him and he turned an accusing look at Ubu. “If I’m your fucktoy, I’m not <em>his</em> too, am I?”</p>
<p>Ra’s shook his head in dismay. “Fucktoy. Wherever do you come up with these crude, unimaginative words? Ubu is a loyal servant.” Ra’s turned to the servant, who stood, patient and prepared for whatever orders his master had for him, and asked, “Ubu, how is your family?”</p>
<p>“My wife has born me ten fine children these long years, my master,” Ubu said promptly. “Four have died in your service, with great loyalty and bravery. One fell to the Detective, if you will recall, so many years ago.”</p>
<p>Ra’s nodded and turned back to Roman. “There? You see? Ubu has no designs upon your person. Now stop with the melodramatics and let us adjourn upstairs.”</p>
<p>Ubu turned so smartly it was almost military-precision, leading Ra’s and Roman up, up, up through a rocky tunnel that eventually gave way to a man-made structure. They entered the building above via a small room, lit only by dim light of a rich red hue. It made Ubu look like a devil, but Ra’s even more so, with that devilish beard.</p>
<p>They stepped through the room to a wide, long gallery hall filled with objects d’art, paintings, sculpture and items Roman had absolutely no clue what they were. His eyes, however, homed in on something very familiar.</p>
<p>“That’s my mask.”</p>
<p>Ra’s gave it a cursory glance. “A souvenir for myself of my recent time in Gotham City. A reminder to you of your, shall we say, sordid, disreputable past.”</p>
<p>Ubu led the way to a set of very grandiose stairs, the bannister of fine rich wood with a hint of subtle silver gilding and carpeting that looked plush and extremely refined.</p>
<p>Here Ra’s stopped and waved Ubu on. “He and I will discuss arrangements. You are dismissed for the evening, my faithful Ubu.” Ubu nodded and disappeared further down the hall. Ra’s turned to Roman and gave him a gracious smile. “You may sleep, and live, with me in my chambers. I assure you there is plenty of room for the both of us, even with your atrociously tacky wardrobe that oddly flatters you. Or you can be assigned chambers to live in,” and here Ra’s prowled right up to Roman and brushed a kiss over both cheeks, “but still lie in bed with me every night. Where.” Kiss on the forehead. “You.” Kiss on the tip of his nose. “Belong.” A hungry, demanding kiss to his mouth, which Roman opened up to greedily, clutching at Ra’s’ lapels.</p>
<p>“Show me my choices and then let me decide,” Roman panted when Ra’s released his mouth.</p>
<p>“Oh, so pragmatic when you want to be,” his powerful lover said with a chuckle. “As you wish.”</p>
<p>Ra’s led the way upstairs, giving an unobtrusive helping hand whenever Roman’s still weak and abused body got wavery. The upstairs was enormous, door after door in infinity. Ra’s waved a lazy hand into the recesses.</p>
<p>“My daughters live down there. Nyssa, I fear, holds a grudge against me, rightly so, for my past treatment of her and her mother. I am attempting to mend fences but she is a most stubborn woman.”</p>
<p>“Is that the one who manhandled me downstairs?” Roman asked darkly.</p>
<p>The backhand came out of nowhere and Roman reeled into the wall from the force of the blow.</p>
<p>“Talia al Ghul, had she been born a male, would have been the perfect successor to my empire and my plans for the world’s fate,” Ra’s said in a low, warning tone. “She is intelligent, skilled, and no mere cipher. I will tell you only once. My children, and grandson, will have your utmost respect and courtesy. If I discern any of your lamentable foul manners in regards to women toward Nyssa or Talia, I. Will. End. You.” The last four words were clipped, hard, cold, and deadly as any viper bite.</p>
<p>Roman heard it, understood it, and vowed that if the bitches came near him and gave him any trouble, there would be no witnesses to report it.</p>
<p>As if reading Roman’s mind, Ra’s scowled. “I own everyone in this house, on this estate and in the surrounding villages. Do not think to circumvent me, idiot, unless you wish I had left you a floating mass of flesh and bone in the Gotham River.”</p>
<p>Roman scowled. “You like women less than I do,” he protested.</p>
<p>Ra’s looked amused at that. “Wherever did you get <em>that</em> idea, my lovely? I merely believe a woman has her place in the world and that it is not equal to men. I do not underestimate or think ill of them in the slightest.” Ra’s tapped Roman’s nose in an almost playful manner. “You have such curious notions. I do wonder where you get them. Enough. Come. See your choices.”</p>
<p>Ra’s threw open the first door and Roman peered past his lover, his mouth dropping open in an astonished ‘o’.</p>
<p>“Is that…?” he started to say weakly, waving a near limp hand at the room’s golden-brown interior.</p>
<p>Ra’s gave a sniff. “Stupid Nazis,” he sneered. “They would have carved it into chunks and scattered it to the highest bidder. Essentially did. It took me years to find all the pieces and hire experts to reconstruct the panels to as close to their original configuration and beauty as possible.” Ra’s tapped the door frame with a pensive forefinger. “It took some doing to fit it all in these rooms, but I am pleased how it turned out.”</p>
<p>Roman could only gape. The famous Amber Room of the Tsarist Catherine Palace, here! And he could be sleeping in it. He turned to Ra’s, still stunned near stupid, to find the older man looking at his consideringly.</p>
<p>“No,” Ra’s decided. “It’s beauty pales compared to yours.” Here a gentle caress across the bruise the backhand created. “Nor does it suit your coloring and, er, style. We shall look at another.”</p>
<p>Ra’s closed the door and unceremoniously pulled Roman to another door three down on the opposite side of the corridor. Here the door opened to dazzling gold, with hints of turquoise, jade, opal, quartz and other precious and semi-precious gems, all in configurations of furniture, golden statues of exotic jaguars and eagles, and the gold gilded walls were interspersed with paintings of Aztec, or Toltec maybe, scenes and people.</p>
<p>“What is this?” Roman asked stepping inside to get a better sense of the exotic room.</p>
<p>“Aztec, some Mayan and Toltec, gold, gems and artifacts I’ve collected over the years,” Ra’s told him casually. “Some of it I bought off Cortez, some I helped dredge the canals at Tenochtitlan when the locals were a bit more, shall we say, cooperative?”</p>
<p>Roman turned to Ra’s in astonishment.</p>
<p>“This is not right either,” Ra’s announced.</p>
<p>Roman narrowed his eyes. “You’re showing off,” he accused.</p>
<p>Ra’s gave a laugh. “Of course I am, my lovely,” he said. “Are you impressed yet?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” Roman admitted grudgingly. Then he gave Ra’s a sly look. “What do <em>your</em> chambers look like,” he approached with a sultry swing to his hips, “my master?” he ended with a purr.</p>
<p>Ra’s merely smiled at him, pulled him from the room, closed the door, and led Roman down the corridor four more doors down. He stopped and gestured for Roman to open the door they stood before. Swallowing, wondering what on Earth a man with this much power, having collected such rare and precious riches, could decorate his personal chambers with, Roman threw open the door with a theatrical flourish.</p>
<p>It didn’t look like much. A bit of glitter and glint here and there but positively boring compared to the other two rooms. Roman gave Ra’s a look of askance but Ra’s merely stepped through the door, approached a positively enormous four poster bed with rich silk hangings of blue and green, and tossed his jacket across a chair after he removed it.</p>
<p>“Ah, despite my travels, there is no place like home,” sighed Ra’s.</p>
<p>“I don’t get it.”</p>
<p>Ra’s turned to Roman with an inquiring expression. “What don’t you get, my precious one?”</p>
<p>“This,” Roman stepped within and waved a hand to encompass the room. “It’s so…so…dull?”</p>
<p>Ra’s sighed. “Such a Philistine,” he lamented. “Come here,” he invited, holding out a hand and Roman approached, still taking in the light brown woods of furniture, bed, and even the curtain rods.</p>
<p>He frowned. The hints of color looked like stained glass, but not glass. It niggled his mind but he couldn’t place it.</p>
<p>“Have you heard of Limoges?” Ra’s asked.</p>
<p>“France?”</p>
<p>“Indeed. Though in the past few centuries they have begun once more produce enamel works, they do not compare to that they produced before that nodcock, Edward, The Black Prince, destroyed Limoges in a spiteful fit of rage. This room,” Ra’s picked up a delicate statuette of a horse in beautiful, understated blue and red enamel, “houses some of their work. I have collected, bartered, stolen, murdered for them. Their craftsmanship, to mine eyes, has no equal. Wealth, Roman Sionis, is in the eyes of those that appreciate it, not some crude banker rubbing his hands together in greed like Ebenezer Scrooge.”</p>
<p>Roman frowned and looked about, prowling the room, looking but not touching. He was no history expert but the Black Prince was some medieval royal knight during some war or another. As old as the items were in the other rooms, these, dull and unprepossessing as they seemed, were infinitely older and rarer. He could appreciate that. The rarer something was, the more expensive it became.</p>
<p>“Throw in your delicious lovemaking on that ocean liner of a bed and I think I could get used to sleeping here,” Roman announced, turning with a dramatic swish of his skimpy robe.</p>
<p>Ra’s gave him a wide, approving smile. “I knew you’d see it my way,” he replied. “Now. Take that off, get on the bed, and I shall give you a second helping of what you deserve and desire.”</p>
<p>Roman couldn’t move fast enough. The bed was heavenly, like it was stuffed with real feathers. He didn’t bother turning back the silk coverlet, and swiftly tucked one of the firm pillows under his hips. Ra’s divested himself of his clothes and Roman, knowing it was lewd but also that Ra’s liked it, spread his legs and gave his hardening cock a lazy stroke to perk it up some more.</p>
<p>For the next two hours, Ra’s made good on his word. The man was beyond insatiable. Roman lost count of how many times Ra’s had wrung orgasms out of him and was still going strong, the last round just lazily stroking in and out of Roman’s hole, while Roman stared glassy-eyed at the canopy overheard. He felt nothing and everything.</p>
<p>When Ra’s came the final time and collapsed on Roman, the younger man gave an overstimulated twitch. A large hand wrapped around Roman’s soft cock and toyed with it.</p>
<p>“I’ve never come so much in my life,” Roman said in an exhausted, dreamy voice.</p>
<p>“That would be the Pit’s power. Gave you a stamina boost. It won’t last long,” Ra’s told him with tired amiability.</p>
<p>“Might be worth regular swims,” Roman yawned.</p>
<p>Ra’s stiffened and manhandled Roman tight into his arms. “You must never do so, unless I give you permission,” the big man ordered gruffly. “Dunkings every few decades is beneficial, though not completely without disadvantages. Regular, repeated, plunges into the Lazarus Pits will destroy first your mind and then your body. Tempting though it is, my love, do <em>not</em> consider it.”</p>
<p>Roman was too tired to argue. “Okay,” he agreed around another yawn, snuggled into the arms around him and fell asleep.</p>
<p>He awoke to darkness and an empty bed. Roman rolled several times to get to the edge to reach a small bedside table with a lamp and clicked it on. He blinked at the sudden light and froze.</p>
<p>A woman stood at the foot of the bed, hand on a poster rail, and looking at him with the same contemplative expression Ra’s sometimes had.</p>
<p>“Who are you?” he snapped.</p>
<p>“Talia al Ghul,” she introduced in a soft tone but with an obvious hint of steel.</p>
<p>“What are you doing in here? This is me and Ra’s’ room,” he returned. He sat up more fully and the coverlet slipped down. He clutched it up further and she gave a mocking, unimpressed laugh.</p>
<p>“I assure you, I’ve seen, and fucked, better than what you’ve got,” she taunted.</p>
<p>Roman saw furious red and made a motion to leave the bed and beat the impertinent bitch down until Ra’s brutal warning from earlier that day rang in his head.</p>
<p>Talia smirked. “That’s right,” she said, turning away. “Be a good little dog and do what you’re told. You’ll live longer that way.”</p>
<p>“I’m no one’s bitch,” he snarled.</p>
<p>“Well, he certainly isn’t yours, sweetling,” she laughed.</p>
<p>“I owned Gotham once, I can do it again,” he tried again.</p>
<p>Again she laughed. “Gotham? Oh you think oh so small. Is your brain the size of your penis, Roman Sionis? I’ve done research on you. You had a little niche of power, just enough instability to make people wary of pissing you off, but really, you were small fry in the big sea that is Gotham City.”</p>
<p>“How would you know?” She was seriously pissing him off.</p>
<p>She turned. “Why, my beloved told me,” she purred. “You might know him as Batman?”</p>
<p>At the name of Gotham’s cape and cowled vigilante, Roman blanched. His minions had occasional run-ins with the Bat, but Roman had been smart enough to stay off that sociopath’s radar. He thought.</p>
<p>“Your beloved?” he repeated tersely.</p>
<p>“Oh, yes. Father chose him for me.” Talia turned to Roman fully and gave a smirk perfectly designed to send him right over the edge. “Why Father chose <em>you</em>,” and here she emphasized with some distaste, “I’m sure I don’t know. So I offer a truce. Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. I know your tendencies to demeaning women. If you don’t want that prick of yours chopped off when Father is out on a scheme, I suggest you mind your manners, if you have any, and stay out of my way.”</p>
<p>She arched an eyebrow and waited for his response.</p>
<p>He had several. All that would probably have Ra’s beat him within an inch of his life. “I’m not his slut,” he ground out.</p>
<p>“Of course not,” Talia agreed with unconvincing agreeability.</p>
<p>“Fine. We are polite but I’ll be damned if I’ll share him when he’s with me. When he’s with me, he’s with <em>me</em>,” he told her with a snap.</p>
<p>“By all means, make him happy. I do not begrudge him that. He has so few moments of it,” she said magnanimously. “Let’s just say I’m laying down house rules.”</p>
<p>“Whatever.” He threw himself back onto the pillow and slammed his eyes shut.</p>
<p>He heard her chuckle, the door open and then close with a finite snickt.</p>
<p>And that’s when he realized, for the first time since he’d seen Ra’s step into his club, that Roman had been playing way out of his league. It didn’t have to be all humiliating to be a boytoy to a man as powerful both in body, mind and wealth. He could learn. He could watch.</p>
<p>Ra’s had no successor?</p>
<p>Roman would give him one.</p>
<p>In one Roman Sionis.</p>
<p>He lay down, stretched, feeling the stretch and burn of repeated, violent sex and smiled to himself.</p>
<p>Perhaps being the kept man might not be such a bad thing after all.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is probably the last Ra's/Roman story. Unless one of you comes up with another setup and tortures me with it. (hint hint)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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